Cross-connection

New Delhi, Oct. 11: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has challenged Trai’s directive on additional revenue share between operators on roaming calls in the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).

Accepting the petition, the TDSAT bench, headed by Justice Arun Kumar, issued notices to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and directed it to file a reply within two weeks.

Kumar also directed Trai not to take any coercive steps against BSNL till November 17, the next date of hearing.

On September 11, Trai passed a regulation that prohibited additional revenue share for roaming calls on applications received by some private cellular operators and said the prevailing rate of 30 paise per minute would be applicable for all types of roaming calls according to IUC regulation.

It also held that there was no need by the private operators to pay any additional interconnect charges on roaming calls.

“The prescribed termination charge is cost-based, independent of the network from where the call is originating/ terminating and also independent of the tariff charged by the operators,” Trai said.

BSNL, a market leader in the segment, has come out with its own scheme for this additional revenue share over and above the prescribed termination charge for terminating the roaming calls in its network.

BSNL also sought commercial agreement with other operators on a reciprocal basis, which was rejected by Trai on the basis that it would put additional burden on the consumers. Also the regulator said the new proposal was against its goal to achieve seamless national roaming without any extra burden on the consumers.